GC holder since 3-14-02 but got CONTINUOUS RESIDENCE issue HELP pls ..

mrnoodles

Registered Users (C)
GC since 3-14-02 married to the same US citizen since ...

been in and out of the US for a long period of time ... recent travel record

11-01-07 to 06-15-2009 = 592 days out of the US ( entered legally via re entry permit )

04-14-10 to 06-14-2010 = 61 days out of the US ( vacation)
03-27-11 t0 06-14-2011 = 79 days out of the US (vacation) days counting as i post
this thread




I'm planning to file N400 under 3 year married to US Citizen eligibility
Been continuously living in the states for 2 years straight now then i read this note from the USCIS website

If you leave the country for 1 year or
longer, you may be eligible to re-enter as a
Permanent Resident if you have a Re-entry
Permit. But none of the time you were in
the United States before you left the country
counts toward your time in continuous
residence.
If you return within 2 years, some of your
time out of the country does count. In
fact, the last 364 days of your time out of
the country (1 year minus 1 day) counts
toward meeting your continuous residence
requirement.


QUESTIONS:

When can i file my N400 ?
Am I eligible to file for citizenship already?

thanks for your time reading my post any help is greatly appreciated
 
GC since 3-14-02 married to the same US citizen since ...

been in and out of the US for a long period of time ... recent travel record

11-01-07 to 06-15-2009 = 592 days out of the US ( entered legally via re entry permit )

04-14-10 to 06-14-2010 = 61 days out of the US ( vacation)
03-27-11 t0 06-14-2011 = 79 days out of the US (vacation) days counting as i post
this thread




I'm planning to file N400 under 3 year married to US Citizen eligibility
Been continuously living in the states for 2 years straight now then i read this note from the USCIS website

If you leave the country for 1 year or
longer, you may be eligible to re-enter as a
Permanent Resident if you have a Re-entry
Permit. But none of the time you were in
the United States before you left the country
counts toward your time in continuous
residence.
If you return within 2 years, some of your
time out of the country does count. In
fact, the last 364 days of your time out of
the country (1 year minus 1 day) counts
toward meeting your continuous residence
requirement.


QUESTIONS:

When can i file my N400 ?
Am I eligible to file for citizenship already?

thanks for your time reading my post any help is greatly appreciated

Based on the information you provided, you can indeed use the 2yr+1day rule that you quoted, meaning that you may file N-400 on 06-17-2011.
 
Based on the information you provided, you can indeed use the 2yr+1day rule that you quoted, meaning that you may file N-400 on 06-17-2011.


is it for sure im eligible by the 17th of June 2011 ? im just worried if they will count 1 yr that i was away automatically ..

also it says on the N400 application to list down all the time i was outside of the US since being a permanent resident i lost my old passport and have no access to the dates from 2002-2006 is that gonna be held against me? thanks again
 
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is it for sure im eligible by the 17th of June 2011 ? im just worried if they will count 1 yr that i was away automatically ..

also it says on the N400 application to list down all the time i was outside of the US since being a permanent resident i lost my old passport and have no access to the dates from 2002-2006 is that gonna be held against me? thanks again

You add 2 years and 1 day from the date you returned from the last disruptive trip (the really long one). see 8 CFR 316.5(c)(1)(ii) on www.uscis.gov on laws tab

According to your post you are CURRENTLY abroad. You cannot accurately predict the future, so be careful.

As for old travel date info, based on your history, USCIS will want full disclosure. You can file a FOIA request with CBP to obtain a printout of your recorded entries and exits.

Good luck,
 
If you give approximate dates for such long trips, be ready to wait for approval to take a while while they confirm with CBP, if not ask you to find other proof of exact dates.
 
thank you for your tip how do i go about filing a FOIA request from CBP? what agency is the CBP and what is an FOIA request ? thank you so much ....

if and when i do obtain an FOIA it will show that since 2002 ive been in and out of the US for a number of long periods of time a couple of 6-7 month trips and maybe a couple 3-4 months trips i lost track already will that be a big problem for me? thanks again
 
thank you for your tip how do i go about filing a FOIA request from CBP? what agency is the CBP and what is an FOIA request ? thank you so much ....

if and when i do obtain an FOIA it will show that since 2002 ive been in and out of the US for a number of long periods of time a couple of 6-7 month trips and maybe a couple 3-4 months trips i lost track already will that be a big problem for me? thanks again

FOIA=Freedom of Information Act.

The instructions on how to file a FOIA request with CBP are available at the CBP website:
https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/de...-of-my-travel-in-and-out-of-the-united-states
 
FOIA=Freedom of Information Act.

The instructions on how to file a FOIA request with CBP are available at the CBP website:


thank you sir ... just wondering how do they keep track everytime i leave the US the immigration dont stamp my passport ? i only get stamped to my destination country ...thanks again
 
thank you sir ... just wondering how do they keep track everytime i leave the US the immigration dont stamp my passport ? i only get stamped to my destination country ...thanks again

When you do a check-in for an international flight out of the U.S., the airline records your passport info and passes it to the CBP.
 
if i just indicate the last 5 years of traveling i did and not the whole time i was a greencard holder will that be a problem? also do they consolidate with the CBP automatically to veirfy all travel records an applicant states in their application or case to case basis ? thank you so much for all the help
 
if i just indicate the last 5 years of traveling i did and not the whole time i was a greencard holder will that be a problem? also do they consolidate with the CBP automatically to veirfy all travel records an applicant states in their application or case to case basis ? thank you so much for all the help

It will be a problem because you'd be lying under oath - the form asks to lists all trips since becoming an LPR and you would be knowingly and deliberately omitting some of the information that the form explicitly and specifically asks you to provide. You don't want to deal with the consequences if you get caught. Just tell the truth or do not submit the application at all.
 
is it for sure im eligible by the 17th of June 2011 ? im just worried if they will count 1 yr that i was away automatically ..

also it says on the N400 application to list down all the time i was outside of the US since being a permanent resident i lost my old passport and have no access to the dates from 2002-2006 is that gonna be held against me? thanks again

You can apply 2 yrs + 1 day after your 6/15/09 return. Make sure to indicate on N-400 that you are applying under the rule 8 CFR 316.5(c)(1)(ii).

Approximate travel dates in month/year format is ok if you don't recall exact dates. Otherwise obtain travel dates from CBP via FOIA as previously suggested.
 
thanks so much for all the great tips and advice ... i have a big problem though :( i wasn't completely honest when i posted my situation ... the dates on my recent passport is not exactly when i traveled out of the US ...

my passport says i arrived abroad 4-14-10 but in reality i left the states 11-7-09 . i had a contact in immigration that changed my date of arrival thus when i entered back to US (6-15-10) it would only show i was out of US for a couple months ... now with the CBP records im pretty sure ill be caught with this illegal action i did ... what should i do somebody pls enlighten me so desperate right now ...
 
thanks so much for all the great tips and advice ... i have a big problem though :( i wasn't completely honest when i posted my situation ... the dates on my recent passport is not exactly when i traveled out of the US ...

my passport says i arrived abroad 4-14-10 but in reality i left the states 11-7-09 . i had a contact in immigration that changed my date of arrival thus when i entered back to US (6-15-10) it would only show i was out of US for a couple months ... now with the CBP records im pretty sure ill be caught with this illegal action i did ... what should i do somebody pls enlighten me so desperate right now ...

Let me see if I got this right: you left the U.S. on 11-7-09 and had an immigration official in the country of your destination falsify the entry date stamp for the entry into that country to show 4-4-10 instead of the actual date of 11-7-09. You did this with the expressed purpose of deceiving the U.S. authorities as to the actual time you spent abroad during that trip, so that it would appear, based on your passport stamps, that you were only out of the U.S. for 2 months, whereas in reality you were out of the U.S. for 7 months and 1 week. This is what happened, correct?

Then you lied about your departure/arrival dates in your original post in this thread, where you wrote "04-14-10 to 06-14-2010 = 61 days out of the US ( vacation)".


I must say that your actions in falsifying the entry stamp to your home country in your passport were incredibly stupid, not to mention illegal. Also, lying about your situation in this forum was not the smartest thing either. The participants in this forum share their experience and advice based on the good faith assumptions regarding those who come here for help; if you want this forum's participants to spend their time and effort helping you, the least you can do is be honest with them.

So before we go any further, I have several questions for you:

1) Were there any other statements in your earlier posts in this thread where you were not "completely honest"? If yes, which ones exactly?

2) What precisely happened when you were re-entering the U.S. on 06-15-2010? Did the passport control officer at the U.S. port of entry ask you any questions regarding your trip abroad? E.g. did he/she ask you where you have been during that trip and for how long? If yes, what exactly did you answer? Did the officer give you any warnings regarding repeated extended absences from the U.S. and their affect on your LPR status?

3) What was the real reason for your trip abroad from 11-7-09 to 06-15-2010? (I assume it was not for vacation, right?)
 
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So before we go any further, I have several questions for you:

1) Were there any other statements in your earlier posts in this thread where you were not "completely honest"? If yes, which ones exactly? - thats all sir no more false statements aside from the date i mentioned

2) What precisely happened when you were re-entering the U.S. on 06-15-2010? Did the passport control officer at the U.S. port of entry ask you any questions regarding your trip abroad? E.g. did he/she ask you where you have been during that trip and for how long? If yes, what exactly did you answer? Did the officer give you any warnings regarding repeated extended absences from the U.S. and their affect on your LPR status? -she just asked me how long i was out then i told her couple months and then she just wrote 8weeks on her piece of paper then sent me on my way

3) What was the real reason for your trip abroad from 11-7-09 to 06-15-2010? (I assume it was not for vacation, right?)-i just spent time with my wife and daughter all that time i was out of the US


thanks again for your time sir and sorry for my not being completely honest earlier
 
she just asked me how long i was out then i told her couple months and then she just wrote 8weeks on her piece of paper then sent me on my way

This is what could kill your citizenship case and possibly lead to deportation. The passport stamp with 4-14-10 may be ignored and there are many possible reasons for it, but the 8 weeks was almost surely typed into the computer and will be inconsistent with CBP records. During the citizenship process they have much more time to scrutinize your travel records, so they'll be able to find discrepancies that weren't apparent to the officer at the POE.

If I were you I wouldn't apply for citizenship, I'd be happy to just keep the green card.
 
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2) What precisely happened when you were re-entering the U.S. on 06-15-2010? Did the passport control officer at the U.S. port of entry ask you any questions regarding your trip abroad? E.g. did he/she ask you where you have been during that trip and for how long? If yes, what exactly did you answer? Did the officer give you any warnings regarding repeated extended absences from the U.S. and their affect on your LPR status? -she just asked me how long i was out then i told her couple months and then she just wrote 8weeks on her piece of paper then sent me on my way

There you do have a problem. You lied to the CBP officer at the passport control regarding the time you had been out of the U.S.: you said it was two months whereas in reality it was 7 months and one week. Moreover, it appears likely that the CBP officer actually made a notation in your CBP record that the length of your absence was 8 weeks, based on the answer you gave her. You were lucky that you did not get caught right then and there: she could have easily looked up your entire entry/exit record in the CBP computer system, in which case she would have seen that in reality you had left the U.S. in November 2009 and had been abroad for over 7 months.

Lying to an immigration officer, coupled with a falsified date stamp in your passport, is, in and of itself, a serious matter. There are significant penalties for doing that (see for example, the provisions regarding document fraud penalties at http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode08/usc_sec_08_00001324---c000-.html)

If you do submit an N-400, now or at any point in the future, you'd need to disclose this entire incident to the IO conducting the naturalization interview and in the N-400 itself. There are several questions there, Questions 23 and 24 in part 10 of N-400, that specifically ask if you had every lied/provided misleading/false information to any U.S. government immigration official or an immigration officer at the port of entry to the U.S. In your cases the correct answer to Question 24 (and probably to Question 23 as well) is "yes", and you'd need to provide a detailed explanation of what happened. If you lie and answer "no", you would only be compounding your problems and digging yourself a deeper hole, in case you get caught.


So before you file N-400 (now or later), I very much recommend that you talk to several immigration lawyers about your situation and ask them about the possible consequences, both for you N-400 application and for your green card status, of falsifying that date stamp in the passport and then lying to the U.S. passport control officer at the port of entry. In particular, you should ask them if that episode itself may make you deportable.


3) What was the real reason for your trip abroad from 11-7-09 to 06-15-2010? (I assume it was not for vacation, right?)-i just spent time with my wife and daughter all that time i was out of the US

You have several problems here as well. If you do file N-400, you'll need to disclose the true dates of your foreign trips since becoming an LPR, including that Nov 2009-June 2010 trip. Since the trip was over 6 months but less than a year in duration, by law that trip is presumed to have broken continuous residency. This presumption may be overcome if the applicant (you) convinces the IO that the trip did not break continuous residency and retain close economic, residential and familial ties to the U.S. during that trip. In your case this will be particularly hard to do for several reasons:

1) The falsified stamp date/lying to the IO at the port of entry to the U.S. about the length of that trip will severely undermine your credibility in the IOs eyes.
2) You had a rather extended (592 days) absence from the U.S. that ended only a few months before the start of your Nov 2009 trip.
3) Your immediate family members (your wife and child) did not remain in the U.S. during that trip.

While you did not provide information in your posts above about your residential and economic ties to the U.S. during the Nov 2009-June 2010 trip (such as if you rented/owned an apartment/house in the U.S. during that trip, if you maintained a U.S. job during that trip, if you had taken a job abroad while you were away, etc), just those three issues listed above make it rather unlikely that you would be able to convince the IO that the trip in question did not break your continuous residency requirement for naturalization purposes.

If that trip did break your continuous residency, then you are not eligible to file N-400 on June 17, 2011.

Moreover, quite apart from the continuous residency issue, there is a good moral character requirement as well. With your falsifying the passport stamp/lying to the IO at the port of entry episode, this is going to present a problem as well. When you talk to the mmigration lawyers about your situation, ask them about this also.

My personal feeling is that you should wait at least the full three years after 06-15-2010 before submitting a marriage-based N-400 application, since by then the incident in question will have fallen outside the three years statutory period most directly relevant to the good moral character determination.
 
I should not misread any motives since the OP has said that there was only one false / erroneous statement. But given the story about losing the old passport, not being able to remember the dates from 2002-2006, it makes me wonder. And if the OP is indeed interrogated by the interviewer on this aspect, it is likely the same doubts might come in interviewer's mind.

Now let's take OP's perspective. How can one minimize the damage? As baikal suggested, waiting 3 years after the last trip is a must. I agree. I would even say that keep 3 clean calendar years so that this trip does not even show up in some "3 year report" ... if they have any.

I would also advise to get the CBP records and rather than trying to remember when you traveled in the past, use these records to refresh your memory. In your situation, I would not guess. If one more major discrepancy is discovered (it may not be), it might be the end of the interview.

On 7 month / 2 month travel, the OP has 2 problems. I think he can get out of 1 problem. Problem 1 ... the passport stamp. I think the OP can list actual dates and then plead ignorance about passport stamps. Problem 2 ... the 8 week declaration to CBP. No idea how to reconcile this ... but will checking CBP records (through FOIA) help see whether it was actually noted in computers or not?
 
My personal feeling is that you should wait at least the full three years after 06-15-2010 before submitting a marriage-based N-400 application, since by then the incident in question will have fallen outside the three years statutory period most directly relevant to the good moral character determination.

This is the option i am looking at right now ... i just have to straight up be physically in the states for 3 straight years then maybe with the help of a laywer file my N400 .. thank you so much for the advice and enlightenment i just hope and pray that when that day comes my luck hasnt run out on me and still become a US citizen .... just for the record the reason i have been out of the states for too long is to stay with my wife and kid who are both US citizens its just hard for me to be away from them for a long time but then again its not reason for me to do what i did but i was just desperate ... thanks again for all your help and time
 
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